F E ATUR E Communities worldwide have been impacted by the pandemic, resulting in hospitals and health systems becoming overloaded, a situation which is still ongoing in many areas. “Healthcare providers see clinicians dropping out and individuals moving on to other professions because of the emotional overload that they’re experiencing and the physical exhaustion,” says Rhew. Microsoft saw an opportunity to help by implementing its advanced research on technologies that lessen the burden of administrative work. “One of the technologies that we’ve been working on is ambient clinical intelligence, which is about taking a conversation with the patient and seamlessly capturing that information, organising it into a clinical progress note, and then integrating that into the electronic health record (EHR). This can save between 50 to 80 per cent of a single clinician’s time. “ Based on technology that Microsoft had been developing, a solution was created in partnership with healthcare solutions provider Nuance and was brought to market as a product called Dragon Ambient eXperience (DAX). Launched during the pandemic, DAX was originally developed for use during in-person clinic visits. “We reconfigured DAX so that it could be used as part of a virtual care visit. Documentation related to a virtual care encounter could then be seamlessly integrated into the medical record,” says Rhew. “DAX falls within a broader set of technologies related to artificial intelligence (AI) and natural BY M I CHE L E WI T THAU S The Covid-19 pandemic has revealed fault lines in the healthcare sector as providers face unprecedented pressures on resources. Dr David Rhew, global chief medical officer and vice president of healthcare at Microsoft, explains how cloud-based technology tools are helping Widening access to healthcare 138 www. t e c h n o l o g y r e c o r d . c om
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